Skip to Content

Charles Hill

Over 45 years, the art detective helped recover stolen paintings by Titian, Vermeer, and Goya, plus Munch’s The Scream

Richard David Story

A magazine editor who savored life and all its adventures, he was part of the AIR MAIL family

Sylvia Horowitz

From Brooklyn to jobs in fashion, to becoming a valued member of the United Nations family

Danny Ray

For 46 years, he told ’em all to “get on up!” for the Godfather of Soul, James Brown

François Catroux

Married to Saint Laurent’s muse, in the 1970s he made any room he touched in Paris sizzle

John Heilpern

Over a 50-year career, the journalist proved that in criticism there is no skill more powerful than a good sense of humor

Katharine Whitehorn

Witty insights and brisk, clear thinking were hallmarks of a writer who broke down journalistic barriers in the U.K.

Sir Brian and Lady Urquhart

They died a day apart, and embodied the great spirit of the 20th century

Dyslexia’s Dynamic Champion

Patience Thomson was a pioneer for misunderstood children

The Girl Who Outsmarted the Nazis

Janine de Greef spirited Allied airmen out of German territory

A Friend Among Spies

For 60 years, real-life spy turned author John le Carré wrote elegant best-sellers that used the world of espionage to expose the complexities of human nature

The High-Society Inventor

Peter Florjancic’s life may have been his best creation

Isa Stoppi

She was Italy’s first great model. Richard Avedon called her “the most beautiful woman in the world”

Mademoiselle’s Literary Glam Girl

Edie Locke encouraged Ralph Lauren and Donna Karan while publishing Truman Capote and John Updike

“A Bit of a Clever Dick”

Scottish actor-comedian John Sessions voiced Laurence Olivier, acted with Meryl Streep, and channeled Keith Richards

The Southern Heroine

Charismatic, witty, and determined, Marguerite Littman was a moving force in the early fight against AIDS and counted David Hockney, Bianca Jagger, and Princess Diana among her closest friends

Into Thin Air

Buddhist and bon vivant Ang Rita Sherpa—known as “the Snow Leopard”—led first-class expeditions (and an elusive life)

California Girl

Ann Getty was a stunning bi-coastal socialite who rescued Grove Press, the radically chic publisher of D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, and Samuel Beckett, because she loved to read

“The Best Eyes in the Business”

During the Swinging 60s, Valerie Askew ran the largest modeling agency in Europe and partied with the Beatles

The Woman in Black

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s unanswerable power of argument

The Way We Live Now

How Sir Terence Conran Turned Bauhaus into Your House

She Changed the Rhythm of American Life

Part of an all-female, mixed-race swing band in 1940s America, Helen Jones Woods dodged the Klan to make a joyful—and powerful—noise

The World’s Most Amusing Naughty Person

As Sotheby’s prepares to auction the treasures of John Richardson, his friend remembers the art historian’s intense, inspiring, high-low life

A Writer’s Editor

A longtime editor for Time magazine, Ray Cave brought ambition, wisdom, and wit to the job